Step x step project ideas with tips and tricks from our talented Country View Crafts' Design Team. We have a 'sale' section in the shop all year around but there will be information on special offers and extra-special sale items here too!

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Saturday, 30 November 2013

For those of you that have been asking us for workshops, we're pleased to announce our first which has been scheduled for January 23rd! Yes, we're giving you time to get over Christmas and New Year and planning towards the end of January at that time when you're looking for something to cheer yourself up!

Many of you will know Brenda, she is an accomplished crafter who
appears regularly in our shop blog and a permanent member of our
Challenge site's design team. She has also been blogging regularly on
her own blog - www.bumblebeesandbutterflies.com - from which you'll see that her work has often been mentioned by Tim himself!

This
workshop has been designed to take the stress out of distressing and is
ideal for beginners and the more seasoned crafter alike. Have fun with
us for the day getting busy with tags, inks, idea-ology and more as we
craft away to make a fabulous tag journal.

Designed to take the stress out of distress, why not come and join us in our fun packed day playing with inks, idea-ology and more!

Friday, 29 November 2013

I started this festive tag by dabbing distress stains one by one onto my ink mat and layering the colour up (Peeled paint, Wild Honey, Red brick). When it was dry I gave it a very light covering all over with Picket fence…

I edged the tag in layers too, a layer of Peeled paint Distress embossing powder, gold tinsel embossing powder and then more of the green on top (using the embossing fluid dabber as the base)…

I painted a washer with Red brick distress paint and then glued it to the label hole of the tag. A lot of crafters hate throwing things away and I’mno different. When I get a sliver of an off cut of card I make spirals (coils) using a quilling tool (pointed tweezers work too). I added a red spiral to the bottom right…

This Santa is from the Mini holidays #4 set, stamped with black archival ink…

A rough card template in the basic shape of a flower was all that was needed to cut out this material (any). I then placed a small washer in the centre and poked the end of a pointy tool through from behind to create a ‘bubble’ on the top…

After carefully removing the tool I turned it over and glued a bead into the bubble from the back to stop it collapsing once it’s used…

A small snip of gold wire (a reasonable gauge, not the very thin stuff) folded, twisted and then coiled forms a great decoration as an option to the more usual ribbon or cord loop through the label hole…

Then I layered leaves (any) to the top left corner, any will do. I added more glue to the back of the flower (Claudine Hellmuth glue is fab, it sticks most things and dried quite quickly) and stuck it in place I added some Diamond Stickles around the washer of the flower…

Wednesday, 27 November 2013

For my first blog post here at the shop I am sharing a Christmas Card using some

inky and embossing techniques.

I cut a piece of cream cardstock to fit my embossing folder and inked it up using the Seasonal Distress Inks: Evergreen Bough, Festive Berries and Iced Spruce. I can't get enough of the Tim Holtz Wrinkle Free Distress Ink technique and love the way colours just blend into each other but still having a little bit of control (keeping the red on one side!)

When dry I ran it through the Big Shot with my Starburst Embossing Folder, covered it all with Versamark Embossing Ink and liberally covered it all with the Antiquities Frosted Crystal Embossing Powder before heating with the heat gun to get the lovely frosted finish.

It is not easy to see from the photograph but the embossing is really frosted. However, I did make it a bit more prominent in places by using some Picket Fence Distress Stain along the starbursts.

I added some embellishments - handmade flowers (there is a tutorial on my blog here for the roses), berries, spirals, ribbon, scrim, muslin and a stamped sentiment. Then edged it all with a Gold Pen and layered it with some red cardstock onto a card blank.

And the finished card. I love the way the colours merge into each other and although they are bright they are beautifully frosted.

One more for the box and I hope I get some time to start sending them soon!

Everything I have used for the background are available from the shop here.